“Chandrayan-3 will be launched in July…I am confident”: ISRO Chairman Somanath

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath announced on Monday that Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, will launch in July.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2 that will demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe lunar landing and roving. “I am very confident…” Somnath said today about the lunar mission.

The chairman of ISRO was speaking after the space agency successfully launched the NVS-01, the first satellite in the second-generation satellite series, into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The NVS-01 navigation satellite was launched by the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDC SHAR) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking to ANI, Somanath said, “The lesson is very simple. Learn from the past, and do what is possible with your capacity. Failures may happen. There are a thousand reasons for a rocket to fail. Even today, this mission could have failed. But we have to do what is needed to be done”.

Meanwhile, the Chandraayan-3 mission, which includes an indigenous lander module, a propulsion module, and a rover, aims to develop and demonstrate new technologies needed for interplanetary missions.

The three mission objectives of the Chandrayaan-3, according to ISRO, are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.